The West
And Manifest Destiny
The “Wild West”…..?
Cowboys
• Growing demand from cities
> boom in cattle industry,
ranchers used cowboys to get
cattle to RRs
– long drive, Chisholm Trail
– refrigerator cars
• Cowboy life romanticized, in
reality was very tough
– Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane
• Barbed wire helped farmers
but led to range wars, closed
frontier
Chisholm Trail
Ranchers
• Ranch- Area dedicated to raising grazing livestock
• Rely heavily on cowboys and railroads to profit
• Some today have become “dude ranches” (tourism)
Miners
• Gold rushes in CA,
Colorado
• Comstock Lode- silver
rush in Nevada
• Prospectors:
veterans, immigrants,
African Am.
• Boom towns were
dangerous, ruled by
vigilante justice
Farmers
• Homestead Act: land to 600,000 families
– 160 acres per family
– Land rushes, Sooners (Oklahoma)
– Soddys, drought, locusts
• New Technology
– McCormick and Deere
– Morrill Act: federal money to open colleges, research
• Debt and Bankruptcy
– Large bonanza farms failed
– Small farmers ended up in debt due to
overproduction, expensive equipment, RR charges
Minorities
• African Americans
– Exodusters
– Buffalo soldiers: all-black
Army regiment used
during Indian Wars
• Mexican immigrants
– Vaqueros
– Debt peonage
• Chinese immigrants
– Gold rush
– Many used to build
transcontinental RR
– After it was finished,
increasing nativism
resulted in the Chinese
Exclusion Act
Legislation: Natives
• Dawes Act
– Surveyed land given to
tribes and divided it
among individuals
– Similar to Homestead
Act, forced assimilation
• Indian Reorganization Act
– Took measures to restore
native culture/tradition
– Return land to tribes
Remember Indian
Removal??
Railroads
• Workers
– Conditions were dangerous and
poor, most were unemployed
veterans and immigrants
– Pullman towns house/control
• Corruption
– Land grant misuse: Crédit Mobilier
– Price fixing and discrimination
• Regulation
– Granger laws at state level: Munn v. Illinois
– Interstate Commerce Act create the ICC for federal
regulation, but was weak
Promontory Point, Utah
170 million acres, and a significant portion of the
Homestead Act land
Panic of 1893
• Railroad bubble bursts due
to speculation and shaky
financing > bank failures and
a run on the gold supply
– Coxey’s march on Washington
– Pullman strike
• Led to consolidation of
railroads and the Free Silver
movement
– greenbacks > deflation after
Civil War
– new mines flooded market
with silver
Populism: The People’s Party
• Omaha Platform based on issues of farmer and
industrial workers (“common man”)
– direct election of senators, graduated income tax,
8-hr workday, bimetallism
• “Silverites” supported bimetallism, the government backing
money with silver in addition to gold in order to increase the
money supply and stimulate the economy
• “Goldbugs” wanted to keep the current gold standard, which was
more stable and benefited bankers and businesses
• Fusion with the Democratic Party
– William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”
speech earned him the nomination of
both parties
– Lost to Republican William McKinley